


A Year Later-Revised Edition

by plantbitch666



Category: Happiest Season (2020)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27745657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plantbitch666/pseuds/plantbitch666
Summary: Almost a year later, Riley has moved on from a crush on her ex girlfriend's girlfriend, until she shows up in her life again.
Relationships: Abby Holland/Riley Johnson
Comments: 9
Kudos: 385





	A Year Later-Revised Edition

**Author's Note:**

> hello LGBTQ community

It’s the biggest fucking stereotype out there, lesbians falling for their ex’s ex’s, and for so long Riley avoided it. Until she saw Abby. From their first meeting outside the bathroom, she related to her, felt bad for, but mostly she felt drawn to her. 

Riley would be lying if she said seeing Abby go back to Harper after she treated her like shit for five straight days didn’t hurt. She would be ashamed to admit it, but there was a small part of her, well maybe large, that wanted to rescue Abby. To take her home, and love her like Harper should’ve, without shame, without remorse or regret. But Riley knew the situation was more complex, there was nuance and she should have more empathy for Harper. So she didn’t do anything, just returned home alone after the horrific Christmas Eve party feeling bad about herself. A few days later she went back to Baltimore and continued on with her life, a little heartbroken, but aware there was no reason for her to feel that way. 

In June she finished her residency and moved to New York City to start her fellowship. It was exciting, a whole new cities filled with potential girlfriends, and a big apartment paid for by her new fellow salary. Settling in took longer than she expected it, but by the fall she had a few friends that she could go out for drinks with on Fridays. For the first time in a while she felt free and actually had hope for her future.

She wasn’t expecting to run into Abby in tampon aisle of her local CVS. She saw her first and for a second tried to figure out if she wanted to say hello or pretend like she hadn’t seen her and walk away, before Abby saw her too. It was too late, and Riley anticipated being heartbroken all over again.

“Hey,” Abby shrugged awkwardly. Riley laughed at that inwardly. That was something she liked about Abby, how shyly chill she was.

“Hey,” Riley returned. For a few moments they just stood there staring at each other. Abby looked good, even though she was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Her hair was messy and it looked like she had just woken up from a long nap. She was so hot, even when she wasn’t trying to be. 

“I would say the tampon aisle might be the most awkward place to run into your ex’s ex.” Abby said, breaking the silence and Riley’s train of thought. For a second, Riley wondered if she had misspoke, ex’s ex. That would mean that Harper and her broke up. 

“I would say a sex toy shop is probably weirder.” Riley said, not wanting to ask if she had her correctly. 

“Yeah,” Abby chuckled, “That would be awkward. So… how are you?” she stammered. 

“Good, yeah I finished my residency and moved here a few months ago. It’s definitely an adjustment, making new friends and all, but it’s good. How are you? What have you been up to?”

“It’s a long story and I don’t want to bore you, but the short one is I finished my PhD and moved here, alone. Harper and I just didn’t work out, you know?” 

Riley wanted to know the long story, but she didn’t want to invade. “Yeah, I understand.”

Abby picked a box off the shelf, and gestured to the front of the store, “Well, I gotta check out, we should catch up sometime.”

“I’ll walk with you,” Riley said, as Abby walked towards her and the cashiers. 

“Don’t you not need anything?” Abby was referring to Riley’s empty basket. 

“Yeah, crap, I need tampons,” she said as she hastily grabbed a box. It was embarrassing enough to run into the girl you like in a tampon aisle, but it was worse when she called you out on following her instead of actually buying the things you need.

“Don’t rush too much, I can wait,” Abby teased.

They walked to the cashier together in silence. Usually Riley was afraid of silence, but this felt comfortable. After paying, they stepped into the cold fall evening. 

“I’m serious that we should catch up. I know that we barely know each other, but I missed you.” Abby said. Riley knew she was being genuine and not just saying that to be nice.

“I’d love to. And I want to hear the long story, about what you’ve been up to, if you’re okay with that?”   
Abby nodded in agreement. 

“Hand me your phone, I’ll put my number in?” 

As Abby handed Riley her phone, their hands brushed. Abby’s hands were soft and warm and Riley wanted to hold onto them forever and never let go. 

After exchanging numbers, Riley headed home. She wanted to hug her goodbye, but didn’t want to overstep a boundary. They weren’t friends, barely even acquaintances, just two strangers that shared an ex. Who may or may not have fucked them both up. 

Riley’s apartment was cold when she got home. Flush with the money from her new salary, she rented a larger apartment then she needed. Nights like these, cold and windy, made it feel larger and more lonely. More than anything, she wanted someone here with her, preferably a girlfriend, but even a slightly annoying roommate would have sufficed. Back in Baltimore she had a roommate, a overbearing but ultimately loving nurse that Riley had worked with. They would talk after long workdays about the people they were dating and politics and other unimportant things. It was nice to have someone to come home to, that you liked enough to spend time with when you were heating up pasta for dinner but didn’t feel obligated to actually hang out with. She missed that. Nobody told Riley how lonely adulthood was. Growing up, everyone always said, it gets better. And in some ways it had gotten better, she actually had friends now. Instead of people who pretended to be her friend until they found out she was gay. But she missed being fourteen and having someone there for her at all times, even if it was usually her mom.  
Before she could feel too bad about herself her phone dinged. Her heart sped up when she noticed it was from Abby.

Abby- Hey, this might be too soon, but it’s basically dinner time and I’m hungry and lonely. Do you want to go get food with me? I’m going to guess since we have the same CVS we don’t live too far from each other.

Riley- I’d love to. You pick the place and just send me the address.

A few minutes later Abby texted her saying that she got a last minute reservation for an hour later at a restaurant a ten minute walk uptown from Riley. The restaurant was popular and it was Saturday night, so Riley had no clue how Abby managed to get a reservation.

For the next hour Riley tore through her closet trying to find the right thing to wear. It wasn’t explicitly a date, but Riley wanted to make a good impression regardless. She was nervous. Finally she decided on a black dress that was maybe a little too nice for the place they were going, but there was nothing better. The last time she wore it was the Christmas party when she first bonded with Abby. It was one of her favorites, Riley wasn’t blind, she knew how hot she looked in it. How it complimented her curves and her dark hair. Most of Riley’s time was spent in scrubs and when she did go out, she wore jeans and a shirt, but she still liked dressing up sometimes. Her mom bought her this dress more than a year ago. Riley remembered how her mom had to beg her to let her get it. 

“Riley darling, you barely have anything nice. I want grandbabies one day, so you need to look nice to get a nice girl.” Her mom had said. It was slightly problematic, but Riley was just glad her mom supported her. She knew she was lucky.

Part of her wondered if her parents would’ve been less supportive if she had come out later. That if they had gotten more used to straight Riley, gay Riley would’ve been more of a shock. Riley came out at eleven, it was incredibly early, but she felt horrible being in the closet. It was unbearable, so one night while her mom was driving her home from soccer practice she just admitted it. Her mom was quiet for several minutes and Riley felt like the world was ending but finally she just said, “I love you Riley”. A few days later her mom and dad came into her room and told her that they supported her no matter what and that there was nothing wrong with being gay. And that was that. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was important to Riley. 

Finally it was time to leave. It was completely dark out she stepped outside. The cold wind nipped at her, but it reminded Riley that she was alive, that she had blood flowing through her veins. And that soon she’d be inside with Abby and she’d be warm. Riley felt happy even through all the anxiousness. 

Abby was outside waiting when Riley arrived. She had changed into a nice pair of dress pants and shirt, simple but hot.

“Hey, thanks for coming on such a short notice.” She said, pulling Riley into a quick half hug. It was a little weird, but mostly because Riley desperately wanted to hug her fully, for longer.

“How did you get last minute reservations here?” Riley questioned, “Are you like second cousin to some billionaire or something?”

That drew a light laugh out of Abby and Riley felt pride swell in her chest.

“No, ummm, the owner was my dad’s best friend. You know, before he died.” She said awkwardly. Riley felt bad for bringing it up, clearly it was an uncomfortable topic.

“Oh, sorry.”

“No, no it’s all good. It’s been more than ten years, I don’t cry at the mention of them anymore. Do you want to go in?” She gestured.

Riley sheepishly followed Abby into the warm restaurant. It was nice inside, a quiet but not oppressively silent atmosphere.

“Reservation for Abby?” Abby told the hostess.

“Of course. The owner will want to see you,” she said, “Let me take your coats.”

When Riley took off her coat, she could feel Abby’s eyes travel her body. She had picked the right dress. Then the hostess led them to their table, a booth tucked into a corner. It was perfect.

“You look good,” Abby said, “I would’ve told you that last Christmas, but it felt taboo.”

“You look good too.” Riley said, trying to stay suave and not freak out.

Before either one could say anything an older man approached the table.

“Abs! It’s been so long, you’re so old now!” he exclaimed. Abby stood up to hug him.

“Mr. Thornton, thank you so much for getting me this reservation. It’s good to see you.”

“Call me Ed, please. And who is this?” 

“This is Riley. Riley this is Ed, my dad’s old friend.”

“C’mon, don’t be calling me old, I’m barely sixty.”

“I stand by what I said,” Abby joked. She looked at ease. Riley liked that.

“Well I’m going to leave you two ladies to enjoy your meal. And Abby, Ursula and I would love to have you for dinner sometime. Riley is welcome to come too.”

“He seems nice.” Riley remarked.

“Yeah, he was so kind after my parents death. I was always welcome to come stay with him and his wife in New York when I needed to.”

Riley nodded, not knowing what to say. Both her parents were alive and healthy.

“After they died, lots of people told me things they didn’t mean. They said they’d be there for me, but most of them weren’t. But Mr. Thornton, or Ed I guess meant it. He and my dad were roommates in college.” 

“That makes sense.”

“Anyways, let’s not get depressing today. I want to hear about your new job. What’s your specialty?”

“I’m an OBGYN,” Riley said, quirking her eyebrow, prepared for vagina jokes.

“Really… that’s interesting,” Abby stammered, like she was holding down giggles.

“Go ahead and make fun of me, I know lesbian gyno is funny.” 

“No, no, it’s completely normal.” Abby tried to say with her face straight before she cracked a huge smile and burst into laughter.

“Mhmmm,” Riley murmured, smiling at Abby’s amusement.

Abby cleared her throat and managed to stop laughing, “Okay, tell me why?”

“I like vaginas,” Riley said with a perfectly innocent face.

“Really?”

“No, that’s weird. I delivered a baby during my third year of med school and I fell in love with the reproductive system. It’s pretty simple actually. Also it’s a good specialty, the hours aren’t crazy, but you also aren’t just in appointments all day. It’s interesting. And you get to bring babies into the world. Pretty amazing.”

“That’s so cool, I never thought about it being more than pap smears.”

“Well it is a lot of pap smears. What about you, where do you work now?”

“I work at the Met. It’s fun and my dream job, but it’s definitely not as impressive as delivering babies.”

“That sounds more interesting than doing pap smears.”

“You’d be surprised by the amount of paperwork. Anyways I’m hoping to be a professor. I teach part time at City College too.”

“Do they call you professor?”

“Ummm, definitely not. I ask them to call me Abby.”

“Can I call you Professor Holland?” 

“Can I call you Doctor Johnson?”

“Fine, you win. I’ll call you Abby if you call me Riley.” Abby laughed at that. 

For a while they sat, staring at the menus, trying to decide what they wanted. Their silence continued after their waiter takes their orders. Riley wanted to ask about it, why Abby and Harper broke up. It feels rude to ask though, so she didn’t.

“You can ask, you know?” Abby said, like she could read her mind.

“About what?” Riley knew what she was referring to, or at least she thought she knew, but clarification was also good.

“The break-up. I know you are wondering… well I’m assuming you are.” 

“Yeah, I guess I am. Tell me what you want to tell me.” Riley said, not wanting to ask something Abby was uncomfortable with.

“In the end, she broke my trust. Or wrecked the image I had of her. We tried to go back to how it used to be, but I just couldn’t. I broke up with her in May and then promptly moved here. Excellent timing I guess. The funny thing is I thought I would miss her, but I think I just missed the idea of her. Like I wanted the perfect girlfriend with the perfect family and it turns out she wasn’t like that. So I guess it’s my fault too.” Abby admitted. 

“I see that, but I wouldn’t blame yourself as much as you are. She was shitty to you, basically leading you to believe something that was false. If she had told you the truth all along, would you have broken up with her?” Riley asked. She felt like Abby may have been unfairly blaming herself.

“Probably not, I don’t really know though.”

“Coming out is hard, but you can’t hurt other people in the process. It’s unfair, Harper hurt both of us, in her story. She apologized to us, but it doesn’t mean what happened went away. I would never say that she’s a bad person, but she wrecked my relationship with her, and clearly wrecked your’s.” Riley had felt like saying that for a long time. 

“You’re probably right.”

The rest of dinner was nice. They talked about the funniest birth stories and what painting Abby liked the most. By the end of it, Riley knew she wanted to never stop talking to Abby. 

It had gotten even colder outside during dinner. And as they walked down the street, Abby leaned into Riley, so that they were sharing warmth but not touching. They walked all the way to Riley’s building without talking, just sharing space with each other in comfortable silence.

“Do you want to come up for a drink?” Riley asked carefully. The lines between date and friendly dinner were blurring quickly.

“Sure,” Abby agreed, following Riley into the warm lobby.

As soon as Riley opened the door to her apartment she realized how messy it was.

“Sorry,” she said while picking up the dirty dishes and taking them to the kitchen, “I’m sort of a slob.”

Abby justs stood in the entryway, waiting to be told to sit somewhere, while Riley clears the couch off. Cleo, Riley’s cat approached Abby and meows loudly. Riley forgot to feed her dinner, so she quickly does that.

Finally after trying to make everything presentable and feeding the annoyed cat, Riley beckoned Abby to follow her into the living room and poured her a glass of wine.

“Thanks,” Abby said.

“No problem,” Riley returned.

They remained quiet for a while, just sipping their wine and staring at each other.

“I don’t know if this is overstepping, but ummm… I like you a lot.” Riley finally admitted, “I would want to go on a real date with you. You know if you wanted to.”

Abby smiled, grinned actually in response, “I’d like that.” She set her glass down on the coffee table and scooted closer to Riley, so that their knees were touching. 

“What..”

“Can I kiss you?” Abby interrupted, “Just once, and then I’m going to go. So we can have a real first date.”

“Yes.”

Abby moved closer, softly cupped Riley’s cheek and kissed her softly. It wasn’t wildly sexual, instead sweet and chaste. After just a few seconds, Abby pulled away, looking into Riley’s eyes so deeply, she wondered if Abby could see her soul.

“I’m going to go, okay?” Abby said. “Thank you for this, I’ll text you okay.”

“Okay,” is all Riley could say in response. Their kiss was so simple, but she’s still blown away. When she heard the front door click close, Riley let out a deep sigh. It seemed to early to feel so deeply connected to someone, but she did.

**Author's Note:**

> anyways I didn't like Harper and I wanted Abby and Riley to end up together so I wrote an alternate ending  
> thanks for reading, comments/advice/criticism always appreciated.


End file.
